NDLI: The Evolution of the Social Contract

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Gifford, Adam
Copyright Year	2002
Abstract	Two transitions in the evolution of the social contract are considered, the first from the dominance hierarchies of the great apes (used as a proxy for our prehuman ancestors) to the egalitarian political structure of non-sedentary hunter-gatherer bands, and the second, to the reintroduction of hierarchical institutions of governance, primarily a result of living in fixed settlements after the inception of agriculture. The first transition was a product of biological and cultural evolution, which brought about big brains, language, higher consciousness, and a lower rate of time preference that enabled early man to sustain an egalitarian social contract and thereby escape the domination that confronted his prehuman ancestors. The second transition was a product of cultural evolution alone. The high costs of enforcing the hunter-gatherer social contract caused it to break down and be replaced by hierarchy when the domestication of plants and animals gave rise to a sedentary existence and increased populations. However, it is shown that the very biological and cultural adaptations that made hunter-gatherer egalitarianism possible were a necessary foundation for the spontaneous creation of complex culture and the evolution of institutions that would once again eventually make freedom possible and economic prosperity possible.
Starting Page	361
Ending Page	379
Page Count	19
File Format	PDF
ISSN	10434062
Journal	Constitutional Political Economy
Volume Number	13
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	15729966
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers
Publisher Date	2002-01-01
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Constitutional Law Political Science
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Sociology and Political Science Philosophy Law Economics and Econometrics

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